Women's T20 challenger | Fingers crossed that we’ll see a women’s IPL in the next few years, says Lisa Sthalekar

The 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League will also feature four exhibition matches played between three teams - IPL Supernovas, IPL Trailblazers and IPL Velocity - led by Indian female cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj respectively. Former Australia female cricketer, Lisa Sthalekar, stated that she hopes to see a women’s IPL in the next two years.

"Exciting news this year with regards to women’s cricket. There has been an increase in teams and matches for the exhibition. Last year, we had only the one game with teams whereas this year we’ve got four games and three teams. That means an increase in international players will come. 

"All the matches will be played in Jaipur and the great thing is that it’s not going to be played at 4 pm in the middle of May when it is ridiculously hot and no one’s going to turn up. It’s going to be played at 8 pm at night except for the 8th of May when I think it’s a doubleheader in the men’s tournament. Fingers crossed that within the next year or two, we’ll see the women’s IPL take place as well,"

Sthalekar, who represented Australia in 125 women’s ODI matches, further added that it will be disappointing to not see Australian cricketers in the upcoming exhibition games due to the ongoing tussle between Cricket Australia and BCCI.

"Fingers crossed that people will turn and watch especially in Jaipur which is the home of Rajasthan Royals and that they have already started some women’s cricket there. They can build upon that in Rajasthan. Disappointing that Australian female cricketers won’t be part of the tournament due to differences between Cricket Australia and BCCI. however, that will give an opportunity to other international players to come in as well as give a chance to domestic players to showcase their talents as well," Sthalekar added.